Abdelrahman
For several months, leaders of Hamas have stood by their choice to initiate the assault on Israel on October 7, 2023. This offensive has triggered a severe Israeli military response, resulting in the tragic deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza and leaving much of the region in ruins.
Despite declaring a “victory” over Israel, some Hamas officials have promised to execute more attacks similar to the one on October 7. However, a senior figure within the organization has recently voiced concerns regarding the implications of that day’s events, which precipitated a humanitarian catastrophe displacing nearly two million people and leading to critical shortages of food and medical care.
Mousa Abu Marzouk, who heads Hamas’s international relations from Qatar, conveyed in an interview with The New York Times that had he anticipated the devastating impact of the attack, he would have been opposed to it. He noted that awareness of such disastrous consequences would have made it “impossible” for him to support the operation.
Mr. Abu Marzouk stated that although he was not privy to the specific plans for the October 7 attack—which resulted in approximately 1,200 fatalities and around 250 hostages—he and other political leaders within Hamas had endorsed the broader military strategy against Israel. He emphasized, “Had the outcomes been predictable, the events of October 7 wouldn’t have occurred.”
